


Someone To Watch Over Me

by Darby_Harper



Series: Mad Mad World [2]
Category: Rammstein
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, F/M, Gen, Mental Link, Psychic Abilities, Psychic Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 12:43:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10719570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darby_Harper/pseuds/Darby_Harper
Summary: A slip-up in the heat of passion could mean the end of Paul’s marriage, or a new beginning for him and his wife, Arielle.





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: **Any similarity between the fictional version of the person portrayed here and the actual person is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction. This is not an attempt to defame the character of said person on the basis of libel, as the work is FICTIONAL (and NOT an intently false statement created with the express purpose of misleading others about the actual character of said person). All rights reserved.**

_I’ve really fucked up this time. If Ari wants to divorce me over this, I won’t stop her. I did this to her, I didn’t ask if she wanted this. I can only hope with all my heart that she won’t leave me…I tried so hard to protect her but in the heat of the moment, I thought with the wrong head and now...now I’ve changed her life forever._

_Mein Gott…What have I done?_

_:::_

 

“Paul, stop pacing a hole in the floor. She’ll be here soon.”

Paul came to a skittering halt in front of Schneider, glaring down at his long-time friend with the ferocity only a man who hasn’t seen his wife for months could muster. “I haven’t seen Ari in two months, you asshole! Phone sex doesn’t come close to it either, so shut up before you get started!”

Schneider threw up his hands, leaning back into his chair to avoid the swat that Paul aimed at him. “Kidding, _kidding_ , Paul! I know it’s been a couple months, just settle down. You work yourself up too much and you’ll pass out at her feet the second she walks in the door!”

“I will not!” Paul snapped, finally managing to swat Schneider, if only grazing the drummer’s dark curls. The two of them began exchanging playful blows with each other, with Schneider finally sliding to the floor, howling with laughter as the blows turned to tickling. The two men wrestled across the drummer’s hotel room floor, barely missing furniture, luggage and a table. They came to rest at last; Paul sprawled across the doorway to the bathroom and Schneider across the room, half under his bed.

“You’re an idiot,” Paul laughed, finally getting enough breath back to speak.

“Yeah, but you’re not pacing a hole in the floor anymore,” Schneider replied, wiggling out from under the bed and brushing himself off. As he stood up, he spotted a pretty redheaded woman about Paul’s height standing in the doorway of the room, an amused look on her face. “Arielle!” he yelled, scrambling across the room to grab the woman up and swing her around in a hug. She laughed and hugged him back, saying, “It’s good to see you too, Schneider!”

Paul wiggled to his feet and all but danced over to pull his wife out of the drummer’s hug and into his arms. He kissed her soundly, and then buried his nose in her neck. “I’ve missed you so much, baby! You’re here!”

“And all in one piece too,” Arielle replied, snuggling under Paul’s arm. “The flight in from New York City was pretty rough. We had to fly around two thunderstorms and through a third. It was pretty to watch but I’m glad to be on solid ground.”

Taking Arielle’s arm, Paul led her across the hallway to his room with Schneider tailing behind them. He dropped a kiss on Arielle’s cheek, saying, “I’m going to leave you two lovebirds alone. Ari, it’s good to see you. I’m gonna go bug Lilly and Richard then get a nap before dinner. Later!”

As soon as Schneider was gone, Paul slammed the door, locked it, and then playfully pounced on his wife, pushing her across the room to land on the bed. Arielle snort-giggled at his playful kisses and growling, returning his kisses with an urgency of her own. She pawed at his t-shirt, dragging it over his head, and then wound her fingers into the belt loops of his jeans, smiling up into her mate’s indigo-grey eyes. “A whole week with you, no kid, no responsibilities. Just us and you spoiling me rotten,” she sighed.

“Mmm...you have no idea how much I’ve missed you, sweetheart,” Paul purred, nibbling along her neck and across her chin. “Phone sex and e-mail sex doesn’t do a thing for me.”

Arielle leaned up and caught his lips in a long, heated kiss, one hand scrabbling to pull her hair out of its ponytail. She shoved Paul over and onto his back and pinned him to the bed, letting her shimmering hair fall around their faces. Nipping at his chin, she whispered, “Let me show you how much _I’ve_ missed you, Paul.”

And she did.

:::

“Did Arielle make it here all right?” Till called from his spot on his hotel room floor where he was sprawled out, stretching his long legs after a quick jaunt around the hotel’s running track with Ollie.

Lilly leaned through the doorway that attached her and Richard’s room to his and said, “Yup, she got here about a half hour ago. And from the way he just slammed the door to his room, he’s _really_ happy to see her too.”

“Well, we won’t see them till tomorrow at the earliest,” Richard said. He was sprawled out on the bed he and Lilly shared, nose buried in a book. “Hope these rooms have soundproofing or everyone and their dog is going to hear them.”

Lilly sat up in her chair, almost knocking her laptop to the floor. “Oh shit. I hope Paul remembers that we’re still not sure if sex transmits the virus or not!” Closing her eyes, she delicately ‘reached’ down the link and ‘tapped’ at the silvery thread that was Paul’s.

**_::I hate to interrupt…::_ **

**_::Damn it Lilly, I’m busy! What now?::_ **

**_::You know you have to be careful what you and your wife do, right? Unless you want her to have the virus as well?::_ **

Panic trilled its way between the links, leaving a sour taste in Lilly’s mouth. **_::Oh shit. Uhm…shit::_**

**_::Paul! You’d better hope it takes more than once for the virus to get into someone’s system if you have sex with them!::_** Lilly growled. **_::Wrap it up next time, okay? Or don’t bite her. Or…damn it::_**

Paul dropped out of the link, leaving the faintest of “walls” behind. Lilly rubbed her eyes and swore mightily, causing Richard to drop his book and Till to smack his head on the door frame as he sat up in alarm. “What’s wrong?” he said, climbing to his feet. Richard met Lilly’s eyes and began muttering to himself, then said, “Paul seems to have forgotten about our virus. Let’s hope it takes more than once to infect someone if you have sex with them, or we’ve got a big, big problem.”

Till rolled his eyes and plopped down on the foot of the bed. “I can just see it now. ‘Oh hey, honey? I’ve just given you a virus that makes you psychic. And you’re also going to get fangs, claws, hyper-sensitive hearing, smell and eyesight. Oh, and it’s communicable through just about every type of contact.’ Arielle won’t just be _mad_ at Paul, she’ll beat him into a pulp. And then she’ll kill him, slowly.”

“Damn it, I wish I still had all of my lab notes and my files on the work I did!” Lilly barked, shoving her laptop to the side of the table and dropping her head in her hands. “I don’t have diddly squat, thanks to whoever nuked my computers and my back up hard drive that I thought I hid so well. I should have kept a copy of everything at home but I was so sure that hidden drive was secure! If I had any of that, maybe I could make a good guess as to what transmits the virus and not just _guess_ at it.”

Richard slid off the bed and went to Lilly, putting his arm around her and hugging her to him. “Okay, sweetheart, slow down. Let’s think this out. All of the viruses that made up the two you and I got, all of them have one thing in common---they’re all transmitted via a bite from the infected person. You and Ollie figured out that it’s either blood or saliva transmitted, right? So maybe it’s not transmitted through sex.”

“That’s all well and good, Reesh, but we know the virus is changing, even now. Look at all the abilities we’ve been developing recently,” Till interjected. “There’s no way to know if it’s decided that it needs more than one way to get to a new host.”

“Till is right,” Lilly murmured, leaning into Richard’s arm. “I have no idea what our viruses have mutated into and no way to find out. This…this is not good.”

“Then we’d better hope we’re lucky this time or that Arielle won’t freak out when someone tells her what she’s going to become,” Richard said quietly, gnawing on his lower lip until Lilly reached over and tapped on it to stop him.

“What who’s going to become?” Schneider asked as he entered the room. He saw the grave look on Till’s face, suddenly felt the alarm still singing down the seven way link, and sat down on the floor next to Till with a hard thump. “Well, _fuck_.”

“Crude but to the point,” Lilly said. “As I was saying earlier, if I had any of my notes from my work back at Vis-Tek, I might be able to figure out if our little viral friend is transmitted through for sure. I know Reesh and I are out as test subjects, so we’re pretty well stuck.”

Schneider sighed deeply, stretched out on the floor near Till and said, “I guess we’d better batten down the hatches because when Arielle gets angry, it ain’t pretty. I’d rather face a hurricane head on than be in her line of sight.”


	2. Two

Paul rolled over in bed, stomach churning with a mixture of anger and fear. Anger at himself for not grabbing a condom before things got serious with Arielle (and seeing as he was supposedly faithful to her, how in the world would he explain wanting to use one?), and fear that he had infected her with the virus that had taken up residence inside him. He’d discussed with Lilly one evening on how to tell his Arielle what had happened months before, but he’d never felt comfortable enough to pick a time and tell her. Now, he had no choice. With a sigh, Paul started to reach over to wake his sleeping wife when a thought came to him, “ Maybe we’ve gotten lucky this time.”

Taking a deep breath, he shut his eyes and steadied his breathing, then ‘reached’ into their linkage the way Lilly had taught all of them. They glowed behind his eyes in shades of blue, green, scarlet, gold and his own silvery-blue color. He carefully inspected them, seeing how each thread was constructed, how it interacted with the others, and trying to see if there was anything that would tell him if he'd infected his wife. As he pulled back to get a better view of everything, he felt Arielle’s arm slide around his waist and her say, “Honey, are you okay?”

Paul snapped back into the real world, struggling to shift between the seen and unseen and not alarm Arielle. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“You were shaking,” Arielle replied, brushing his hair from his forehead. “You’re a little feverish too. Are you coming down with something?”

“I don’t think so,” Paul murmured, wiggling down in the bed until he could lay his head on her shoulder. “We’ve been going like mad the past couple of weeks; I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. I’m fine. How have things been at home?”

“Busy,” Arielle sighed, combing through Paul’s hair with gentle fingers. “Lily’s so busy with school these days I don’t see her till the evening. Work has me jumping from early morning till the evening. I don’t mind being busy, though. Lily wanted to come with me but like I said, school has her as busy as I am. I’m glad my mother can keep up with her!”

“That’s my girl,” Paul replied sleepily as he cuddled closer to Arielle. “Ugh, I’m exhausted. You don’t mind if I take a nap, do you?”

“Not a bit. I’ll go take a shower while you sleep, and then maybe can we go see everyone? I’d like to meet …Lilly? Is that the tour doctor that’s involved with Richard?”

“Yep, that’s her. She’s taken pretty good care of us, keeps us out of trouble. If she and Richard hadn’t been friends first, then---I dunno if they’d like being called “boyfriend and girlfriend”---I don’t think they’d work out the way they have. They’re good for each other. Kinda like us.”

Arielle smiled as she climbed out of bed and tucked the covers back around Paul. Leaning down to kiss him, she said, “That we are. Sleep tight, baby.” Paul waited until he heard the shower start up, then he ‘reached' out again and began picking through the odd landscape that made up the Overworld. Everything seemed as normal until he began to examine his own thread, and came to a dead stop when he saw a tiny lavender-silver thread spinning itself into existence. Unable to stop its evolution, he watched as it popped into the Overworld, sparkling and “feeling” happy, if something like this could be said to have feelings. It had the “scent” of summer roses and lilacs with a hint of ginger. Once it was as large as the other threads, it spiraled outward and stopped only a breath away from his ‘thread.’ It was waiting, but for what? Without considering what the consequences would be, Paul ‘reached’ out to the newborn link and invited it in. The second he ‘touched’ it, he knew what he had done, knew whose link this was.

_Arielle. Memories of their first meeting, their first night together, the joy and fear when she found out she was pregnant, the wellspring of love, amusement, affection and occasional confusion at her beloved, her fierce personality and pride at who she was and the life she had with Paul…_

Paul fell out of the link, shaking, sick and terrified. The only consolation he had was that the link hadn’t become fully “live” until he’d touched it, which hopefully meant that if the link was destroyed before it made contact with anyone else, the virus wouldn’t spread. While that was good news, Paul couldn’t keep himself from being sickened to the bottom of his heart. He’d violated Arielle’s trust in him; he’d intentionally infected her with the virus and all because he couldn’t keep his wits about him in the heat of the moment. Rolling up into a ball and wrapping the sheets around him like a shroud, Paul buried his head under a pillow and shook until he fell into a troubled sleep.

Halfway through drying her hair, Arielle felt a harsh wave of dizziness sweep over her and vanish before she could even register what had happened. She caught herself on the edge of the sink, momentarily disoriented. Shaking her head, she muttered, “Ugh. Jet lag is a bitch.” Ignoring the occasional twinge of headache that pinged at her, she finished her hair and tied it back into a loose braid before shrugging into clean jeans and a sweater the color of the sky at twilight. She padded back into the bedroom and looked in on her husband, who was thrashing about in bed, deep in the clutches of a nightmare.

“Paul! _Libchen_ , wake up,” Arielle called, gently shaking Paul’s shoulder. He didn’t wake, just curled tighter in on himself and whimpered. She shook him again, more forcefully this time, and when Paul’s eyes fluttered open, for a moment they were a brilliant indigo with shadings of silver grey, the pupil almost covering the iris. Arielle pulled back, something inside her telling her to be careful of this sudden stranger lying huddled under her hand. She got a glimpse of a much younger man, skin less lined but still full of character, hair a bit darker and longer than it had been when she’d arrived earlier that day. In the blink of an eye the vision was gone, and Paul was sitting up in bed, clenching his beloved to him and sniffling into her neck. Arielle wrapped her arms around him and said, “Sweetheart, what’s the matter? You were having a nightmare, what’s wrong?”

“I’m okay,” Paul said softly. “I’m okay, now that you’re here. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

Arielle pulled away just enough to look her husband in the eye. “Uh-uh. You’re not okay. I _know_ you, Paul Heiko Landers, and something’s wrong. Are you going to tell me or am I going to have to hang you out over the balcony by your underwear until you tell me?”

“It’s just…Ari, the tour is getting to me. This going for eight weeks on, three weeks off is wearing me out and I’m just exhausted,” Paul said, plastering a smile on his face. “And I’ve missed you _so_ much. That’s all. You know how I get when I’m too tired to see straight.”

Arielle said nothing, just let Paul settled back into her arms. “All right,” she whispered, lying down on the bed with him. “Do you want cuddling?”

“Please.”

As the afternoon wound its way towards nightfall, Arielle laid wide awake, holding her sleeping husband in her arms and wondering more than once what was really going on. Paul had sworn never to lie to her or keep things a secret that should be shared between them, but she was starting to suspect that there was more than met the eye going on.


	3. Three

When Paul woke again, he was cradled in his wife’s arms, her soft, sleep-filled breathing warm in his ear. Blinking sleep-sand out of his eyes, he gazed upon her lovely face as she slept. Long experience told him she hadn’t been asleep long, not more than twenty minutes, if that. Carefully extracting himself from her embrace, he tiptoed into the bathroom, quietly closing the door behind him. Making himself comfortable on the rug, he closed his eyes and reached out to the one person he knew would be able to keep a sensible head on their shoulders when he admitted to what he'd done.

_Scent of old books and dust, warm candlelight flickering in the darkness, bright snap of Autumn air on the skin_ …

**_::Paul?::_ **

**_::Yeah, it’s me, Flake. I’m…are you busy?::_ **

**_::Nothing I can’t take a break from. Is Ari all right? You sound/feel upset. What’s the matter?::_ **

**_::Ari’s fine but I’m not gonna be when she finds out what I’ve done::_** Paul replied, stomach twisting with nerves. Flake’s reply was tinged with sympathy and more than a little sadness. **_::Oh Paul, you didn’t…::_**

**_::Yeah, I did. I wasn’t thinking and before I could remember that we needed to be careful…well, it happened::_ **

**_::Paul, Arielle is going to kill you! How could you be so fucking stupid?::_** Flake snapped angrily.

**_:: Christian, do not snap my fucking head off! I know how badly I’ve fucked up; at least one good thing has come out of this!::_**  Paul hissed. He knew calling Flake by his birth name would anger him like nothing else but at that moment, he didn’t care. He was angry at himself for putting Arielle in danger, angry that in the heat of the moment he’d given in to his needs and not kept in mind how dangerous he could be.

**_::Oh?And pray tell, Heiko, what is this good thing that’s come out of you infecting your sweetheart of a wife with a virus that might not adapt to her and kill her? Did you think of that?::_ **

Paul tamped down on his bonfire of anger, took several deep breaths and said, **_::Yes, I found out the virus can be transmitted sexually but if you don’t mess with the virus as it’s creating the link, it’ll fade out within a couple of moments. Ari would be okay if I hadn’t gotten curious and touched the link once it was formed. I can’t say exactly how I know this but there you have it::_**

Flake was silent for several long, agonizing minutes. **_::So why are you telling me all this when it’s Arielle that you should be talking to?::_**

**_::Because you’re my oldest friend, Flake. You’ve never let me down, you’ve never made a promise you couldn’t keep and you’ve never bullshitted me in all the time I’ve known you. You’re loyal to the very end and I need that right now. I’m scared out of my mind, Flake, and you’re able to keep your head when the world’s going insane around you::_ **

A feeling of embarrassment combined with happiness and humor flowed down the link; if Paul would have been in the room with his friend, he would have seen Flake’s pale face turning bright red. **_::I…thank you. Thank you so much. Although I think you have more faith in me than needed…okay. Tell me what you need, other than to run interference between you and Arielle so you can have a head start running for your life before she blows up::_**

**_::I owe you big time, Flake. I bequeath my baby grand piano to you for that::_ **

  ** _::Heh. Don’t go giving away your possessions just yet. You have Lilly to consider too. If Arielle doesn’t kill you dead for this, Lilly will. My friend, you are in trouble.::_**

 It was late in the evening when Paul got up the nerve to wake Arielle up and talk to her. He stroked her face, calling her name softly, and was soon rewarded by her smiling sleepily up at him. “What time is it?” she asked, stretching all over like a cat.

 “It’s almost eight o’clock in the evening. Do you want to go say hi to everyone and maybe go out to grab dinner?” Paul said, brushing her nose with a delicate kiss.

 “I am feeling a bit hungry but I’d rather go say hi first,” she replied, clambering out of the bed and sitting on the floor at Paul’s feet. Leaning back against his knees, she said, “That little nap did wonders, I feel like I’ve slept for days but I’m not achy all over. Could you be a love and take my hair down?”

 With gentle hands, Paul carefully took the ponytail holder out of Arielle’s hair, feeling the sparks of her changing body flowing through his fingertips. He knew if he closed his eyes and 'looked', he’d see the virus changing her DNA, making her stronger, taking years off of her body, and who knew what else? Smoothing her hair down, Paul leaned in and kissed Arielle’s forehead, saying, “Come on pretty lady, let me get some clothes on and we’ll go see what the rest of the family is up to.”

 It didn’t take long to locate the rest of the band; they had all gathered in Ollie’s room to watch a video of one of their past shows to see if anything needed changing, tightened up…and to take the piss out of each other. It was Schneider’s turn to be picked on; he was getting razzed about his goofy smile during one point in the set when everyone else was looking like grim death. He threw one of his socks at Till, who was obviously the instigator, and yelled, “I can’t help it if some bird in the front row and her friend are going at each other and none of you saw it! How you could miss that I have no earthly idea!”

 Till dodged the flying sock with ease, laughing the whole time. He looked up, saw Paul and Arielle standing in the doorway and cheered. “ _Finally_ , someone to back me up and tell Schneider he looks like an idiot!”

 Paul ambled into the room, peered at the TV screen and said, “Doomie, you look like a goofball. Let me guess, the two ladies in the front row making their own porn? I saw it. I was having a lot more fun watching Reesh attempt to not look at them.”

 Arielle was hiding her face in her hands and trying not to laugh. Before she could speak, Till had launched himself from the floor and was squishing her in a bear hug. “Till, one of these days you’re going to break my ribs!” she laughed, patting him on the shoulder until he let her down. Ollie was next to greet her, although tempering his hug down somewhat, then Flake took his turn, saying, “You’re just in time, we’re going to pick on Paul next.”

 “Hey, don’t I get a say so in this?” Paul snorted. He found an empty seat just big enough for himself and Arielle and settled in for his turn at being teased. He looked over his shoulder at Schneider and asked, “Where’s Lilly and Richard?”

 “They’ll be here in a couple of moments; Lilly had some last-minute stuff to do about her house and Richard went along. Of course they could be a lot longer in getting here…” Schneider replied, raising one elegant eyebrow and winking at Paul.

 “Is my name being taken in vain?” Richard called as he walked into the room. He made a beeline for Arielle to greet her, then stepping back a couple inches, he herded Lilly into his spot. “Arielle, this is Lilly Bailey. Our tour doctor, den mother, parole officer and…my very significant other.”

 Arielle found herself staring into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. The gently-smiling woman’s hair was a vivid, pure red, braided tightly away from her face to show off her multiple-pierced ears. The hand she held out looked fragile, but her grip was strong, confident and cool. “I’m glad to finally meet you, Arielle,” she said, turning sideways a little bit to look over at Paul. “And if your husband insists that he’s totally innocent of the recent sports balm in the underwear debacle, he’s not. In fact, he’s the bloody instigator.”

 Arielle gave her husband a look that combined embarrassment, amusement and a little bit of anger, all in one. “You _didn’t_ ,” she said, shaking her head. “Paul, that’s really mean! What did Richard do to you this time?”

 “It wasn’t Richard, it was _me!_ ” Flake shouted from across the room. “All because we got into a debate over something stupid!”

 “You kept insisting that fourteen down on this morning's newspaper's crossword puzzle was ‘ampersand’ and it wasn’t!” Paul yelled back. “It was ‘albatross’ and you know it, Lorenz!”

 “Oh for the love of…” Lilly began, shaking her head and sighing. “I try to keep them in line but sometimes….”

 Arielle patted Lilly’s shoulder, saying, “I know, I know. Nearly fifty years old and they act like teenage boys if you look away for one moment. It’s one of the reasons I only visit Paul on tour for a couple of days. Any longer than that and I want to stuff all of them in garbage bags and throw them in the nearest river.”

 “You know what, Arielle? I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” Lilly said with a smile.

 


	4. Four

As the band didn’t have a show till the following night and Arielle wasn’t too jet-lagged, Paul wrangled the loan of one of the security people’s cars and took her out for a late evening drive around the city. It was a city that the band had hit on every tour they had been on since the beginning, so he knew the ins and outs of most of the area. As they waited at a stop light, Paul looked over at his wife and asked, “If you’re not too full from dinner, there’s an adorable 50’s type diner not too far from here that has an awesome dessert menu.”

Arielle smiled at her husband and patted his cheek. “I’m never too full for dessert, you know that, my silly Paulchen.”

“I have no clue where any of our ‘unofficial but official’ nicknames came from, but I rather like that one,” Paul snorted. “Till acts like he doesn’t like them but he’ll answer if you call him ‘Tillchen.’”

“He seems to have loosened up a good bit since I last saw him,” Arielle commented, adjusting her ponytail so it laid comfortably along her back. “In fact, all of you seem pretty content. Usually at this time during a tour you’re all so wound up you’re vibrating or declaring war on one another.”

“Everything’s going well. We’ve got a good bunch of people with us, no big incidents, no one’s gotten arrested and we’ve grown up a bit---well, a _little_ bit. I think Till and Richard doing their side projects has helped too,” Paul replied, closely watching the flow of vehicles whiz by him as he navigated the late-night traffic. “I hope the rest of the tour goes as well, I’d hate to have it spoiled by bad luck, bad tempers or some other disaster.”

“Richard’s finally happy,” Arielle said. “I don’t think in all the time I’ve known him that I’ve seen him this happy. He’s glowing like a bride on her wedding day, that’s how happy he seems to be. I’m glad for him.”

“Well, Lilly got the Khira Li stamp of approval, for one. And Nele likes her a lot as well. I know she was really nervous about meeting them, Khira Li especially. Plus Lilly’s nothing like any of Reesh’s ex-girlfriends, wife, all that. I don’t remember if I told you that she was kind of nervous about being called the tour doctor. She's got her nurse's licenses and a couple college degrees, so as far as I'm concerned, she's good to go.”

“You mentioned that, I think. She seems like a decent person, and she’s taken very good care of all of you,” Arielle said as she laid her hand on his shoulder; she felt him tense up and pulled her hand away. “Did I say something? You got all tense just then.”

“Nah, just a bit sore in that shoulder. It comes and goes and I kinda overdid it playing one on one basketball with Schneider the other night,” Paul lied, biting his lower lip. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to keep Arielle from knowing what was now roaming happily through her body, and every time he thought about the consequences, he got sick. What if the virus was killing his beloved even as they spoke? What if the virus didn’t act as it had in him and the others and disabled her...or didn’t do anything?  Thankfully Paul was able to put those thoughts aside as the restaurant he’d been looking for appeared as they turned off of the freeway.

The bright neon lights that surrounded the vividly painted building would not have been out of place in the middle of downtown Las Vegas, while waitstaff in vintage restaurant uniforms and roller skates whisked through the bustle of cars pulling into the drive in bays. Arielle laughed, clapped her hands and said, “Paul, this is wonderful! How did you find this place?”

Pulling into a vacant parking spot, Paul slid out of the car and escorted Arielle to the door, saying, “A few tours back we got into town really, really late and no one wanted to hunt down a McDonald’s or the like even though we were all hungry enough to eat concrete. One of the bus drivers was from this area, suggested this place and there you have it. It’s open 24 hours year round and it’s a lot of fun to come here even if you’re not hungry to look at the vintage cars and stuff. We thought we were going to have to leave Flake behind because there was a classic car show going on and he was over the moon seeing all those cars in one place. It was funny to watch.”

Inside the restaurant proved to be as entertaining as the outside; the black and white tiled floor set off the pink and white painted walls, chrome and neon lights festooned the inside. Waitresses in poodle skirts and matching short-sleeved shirts, hair done up in various 50’s styles waited tables while the cooks behind the bar were dressed in Hawaiian patterned shirts and blue jeans. Paul slipped an arm around Arielle’s waist to steady her as she tried to look everywhere at once. “It’s a bit overwhelming, isn’t it? Thankfully they turn the jukebox off at midnight or you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself think.”

“Hello! Welcome to Bobby Soxers!” a smiling brunette waitress in all yellow called to them. Plucking a pair of thick menus out of a wooden basket, she said, “First timers or old friends?”

Paul grinned at her and said, “Old timers, at least for me. My lovely wife’s never been here before and I figured she’d have to experience this once in her life.”

“You have an interesting accent,” the waitress commented over her shoulder as she led Paul and Arielle to a vacant table near one of the huge windows. “Russian?” she continued, placing a pair of napkin-wrapped place settings in front of each of them. “Sorry if that’s a bit nosy. I can’t help it, I’m a bit of a language nut and there’s always someone that comes through here with an interesting accent. Anyway. What can I get you two to drink, or do you want to wait a bit and look over the menu?”

Arielle smiled up at the waitress and said, “I’d love a Coke if you have it. Oh, and a chocolate milkshake too!”

The waitress, whose name tag read “Nellie” said, “We have a chocolate-chocolate chip and whipped cream milkshake you’d probably love. When Arielle nodded happily to the suggestion, Paul snickered and said, “I’ll have the same thing. And the accent’s German; we're both German born and bred.”

“That’s really cool, and thanks for indulging me in trying to figure it out. I’ll get your sodas and shakes out to you in a jiffy,” Nellie replied with a grin, spinning on the toes of her black and white saddle oxfords and trotting back towards the kitchen door. Paul covered his mouth and laughed softly as he watched Arielle take in the décor, eyes wide and sparkling. She looked at her husband after a moment and said, “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Every second of it my dear, every second.”

:::

Two hours later, stuffed to the limits on homemade ice cream, fudge cake and milkshakes, Paul and Arielle sat happily in a park near the restaurant, watching the river flow by. They’d chosen to sit on the hood of the car rather than chance their footsteps on the dimly lit path that lead to the river’s edge and were now leaning into one another, holding hands and stealing kisses like teenagers. After a long space of silence, Arielle said, “That’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I’m sorry I could only make my visit a couple of days, though. I’m just so backed up at work it’s crazy.”

“That’s perfectly all right, sweetheart,” Paul murmured into Arielle’s sweetly-scented, glossy, red hair. “I’ll be home in a few weeks. We have about a month off before the European leg of the tour, I think.”

“Wow, that much time off? Whoever managed that is getting a Christmas card from me!”

“Actually it was all of us that insisted on it, especially Richard. Lilly is moving to Germany as soon as this leg of the tour is done and she’s going to need some time to get settled at his place before the tour starts again. I don’t know how long she’ll be able to be out with us if at all, but Emu’s got management hopping on finding out if her nursing licenses are valid in Europe. I hope so, she’s one of the best medical types we’ve had on staff in a long time. On top of that she’s selling her house and I have no clue how well that’s going,” Paul replied.

“That’s a really, really big step. I’m probably butting in where I shouldn’t but moving in with Richard and moving from the States to Germany that fast? I hope she knows what she’s getting into,” Arielle replied, knowing Richard almost as well as she knew her husband.

“She’s been through a lot of personal shit the past couple of years and says she needs a new start,” Paul sighed, snuggling closer to Arielle and winding his fingers through hers. “It’s her story to tell; all I’ll say is she deserves to be happy and have a new chance at life.”

Arielle said nothing, just held her mate in her arms and watched the stars twinkling on the gently-moving river below them.

::::

Later that night, curled up next to her soundly sleeping husband, Arielle flipped through her messages on her cell phone, sighing to herself at the sheer amount of work that had piled up in her absence. Irritated, she clicked out of her e-mail and onto a search engine, typing Lilly’s name into the browser. It cranked away for several long seconds, then came up with a short list of results; two were listings for alumni from the colleges she’d graduated from, one was a paper she’d published on emergency medicine from several years previously, and two were from a now-bankrupt laboratory called Vis-Tek. One was a short blurb on their cached website welcoming her to the staff, and another was a notification of a soon to be published paper on her work towards an AIDS vaccine.

 “Well there, Richard, you’ve got a smart one this time. I’d keep her if I were you,” Arielle laughed to herself. Closing out the browser and setting the phone’s alarm clock, she put the phone into its charger and settled under the covers with Paul. He made a soft grumbling noise as she made herself comfortable, then wrapped an arm around her waist and cuddled up tight. Feeling safe and warm, Arielle closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

  _Ari._

 Huh?

  _Arielle, wake up._

What? Who? It’s three in the morning! And I’m asleep.

  _C_ _’mon, wife of mine, wake up. I have something to tell you. It_ _’s important._

 Arielle opened her eyes and found herself sitting in Paul’s office amid his whirlwind of papers, musical equipment, awards, books and all the things he kept safely behind the door. When they’d married, Arielle had put her foot down with the mess migrating to other parts of the house, saying that Paul could have the biggest room in the house for his office as long as he kept the mess in there and the door shut. The only musical instrument in the house was his beloved grand piano that he’d bought from the royalties from “Sehnsucht.” Arielle blinked, rubbed her eyes and said, “Wait a second. How can I be here and back in the States at the same time? I’m dreaming. I have to be.”

 “You’re right, you’re dreaming. There’s a reason you’re dreaming this,” Paul’s voice came from behind her. She turned in her seat and saw him sitting in the window seat, dressed in his usual head to toe black, bare feet peeking from the hems of his jeans and hair mussed as if he’d been awoken from his own sleep. “If I told you what I’m about to tell you while you were awake, you’d probably beat me into a grease spot on the floor. Plus, some of what I need to tell you can’t be told, I have to show you.”

 “Paul, what are you going on about?” Arielle asked, standing up from her seat on the couch and making her way to the window. Pulling her into his lap, Paul said, “Remember a few months back when we came over here to start pre-rehearsal work and you couldn’t get in touch with me for a few days?” Arielle nodded, saying, “You said it had to do with your mobile phone not working and not knowing about it.”

 “It…it wasn’t anything like that. I didn’t know what else to tell you, Ari, but I should have said something by now,” Paul stammered as Arielle jerked free of his arms and stomped across the room. Spinning on her heel, she snapped, “You cheated on me, didn’t you? You little bastard, I should rip your balls out through your nose! How could you do that to me?”

 “I didn’t cheat on you!” Paul cried, standing up from his seat but not moving towards his angry spouse. “Not even in the bloody ballpark! Ari, something bad happened to Richard and we had to get him out of it or we’d be broken up by now.”

 Arielle folded her arms across her chest and glared at Paul with a gaze that could have melted steel. “This had better be good. I’m quite fond of Richard but if he didn’t get into something that needed the fucking German army to get him out, I’m going to take it out of his ass and work my way on to yours!”

Paul took a deep breath and before she could react, he caught Arielle’s face in his hands, stared into her eyes and said, “This is what happened.”

_....between one heartbeat and the next, Arielle saw the hell that Richard and Lilly had lived through, saw the efforts the rest of the band had gone through to rescue them. The salty, iron taste of blood on her tongue from having bitten it made her cough as more visions poured into her consciousness. The fear that the viruses in Richard and Lilly_ _’s blood would do more harm than good, the suicidal bravery the six men had felt with the idea that they might die by the hand of a man gone insane from his experimenting on himself, the elation when the viruses did their job and changed them from the inside out forever. Never to feel empty and alone ever again, able to simply_ _‘reach_ _’ out and know exactly where their brother of the heart was. The joy of having their physical selves reset to their early 20_ _’s, all those years of accumulated aches and pains gone in the blink of an eye. And the black rage towards the madman who had caused it all becoming an undeniable force that once birthed, would not stop until someone was dead_ _…_

 Arielle looked up into Paul’s ashen, tear-streaked face and felt her heart break. Yes, she had every right to be angry at him for not telling her everything before now, but in the face of what she’d seen, the anger shrunk until it was an annoyance. If she had been awake, Arielle knew, she would be headed for the first flight out of town, already on her mobile to the best divorce lawyer she could find. However, something about the dream she was experiencing kept her from doing anything save reach for Paul’s hands and draw him into her shoulder where he could shake and sniffle as long as it took for him to get himself under control. Whatever force held her here made her believe everything she’d seen despite the tiny voice that would normally be screaming its head off that none of what was going on was real.

 “Oh Paul…oh sweetheart, my brave, _brave_ sweetheart,” Arielle murmured, kissing Paul’s sweating forehead and holding him closer. “You silly man, going hell-bent for glory into some crazy guy’s house to rescue your best friend and a woman you’ve never met. What am I going to do with you?”

 “You might want to save all that sweet talk till I finish telling you everything. The virus…it doesn’t just go through blood or spit to infect someone else,” Paul said reluctantly. “I totally forgot that the virus can be transmitted through sex when I saw you and…well…you’re infected now too.”

 Arielle didn’t slap Paul the way he thought she would. Instead, she took a deep breath, obviously forcing her temper and fear down and said in a low, cold voice, “You _infected_ me. With whatever this…virus is. So tell me, husband, how long do I have to get my shit together before I die?”

 “Die? Arielle, no one’s dying from this! If anything, we’re going to live very long, very healthy lives!” Paul said, clutching at her hands. You saw what the viruses have done to us and Lilly; you’re the same way now.”

 “You took that choice out of my hands, Paul,” Arielle sighed, wiggling herself free of their embrace. “You didn’t ask me if I wanted to become like you and the boys are, like Lilly. That’s wrong in so many ways I can’t begin to list them.”

 “I know, I know. Lilly jumped all over my ass because I hadn’t told you anything. And I’m _so_ sorry, you have no clue how sorry I am,” Paul begged. “Please, Ari, don’t leave me over this. I love you more than anything on this Earth. I won’t blame you a bit if you’re angry at me for the rest of my life just as long as you don’t leave me. _Please_.”

 Arielle turned her back to Paul and stared out the window, chewing on the edge of one of her thumbs while she thought. “So as long as I don’t expose anyone to my blood or spit, I won’t pass this along, right?” she said.

 “No. And it only transmits through sex if the virus is allowed to develop. If it’s not monkeyed with as it grows, it dies off quickly. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. I watched it change you and didn’t know if I touched it that it would finish developing. Once it’s in your genes, in your blood and bones, it’s there for good.”

 “And I’m right to assume if I got pregnant again, the baby would be…different?”

 “As far as I know, yeah. That’s something you’d have to talk to Lilly about. All I know is that once you’re infected, it’s there for good,” Paul said quietly. “The only thing that’s different between you and me is you don’t have the fangs or super-sharp nails, that I can tell. You have everything else, the telepathy, the stronger senses, you’ll heal up faster. You’ll probably need to learn how to shield yourself but…”

 Arielle turned around and looked her husband up and down with the manner of a shrewd customer at a used car lot. She met his eyes, refusing to look away and said, “Then teach me everything I need to know. _Now_. And when we’re done, you’re going to wake us up and I am going to smack your ass for scaring me so much.”

 Paul threw his arms around his wife, tears falling unchecked down his face. They embraced for a time, then Paul stepped away and pulled Arielle down onto the couch she had been sitting in when she woke in the middle of her dream. He laid one hand against her cheek and whispered, “Close your eyes and think of a place where you’re safe, happy and at peace, and let me do the rest.”

 :::

Arielle woke up in a rush, shoving herself upright in bed and staring down at her husband with wide, startled eyes. Without needing to speak aloud, Paul nodded at her unspoken question, then sat up next to her.

  ** _::Paul?::_**

  ** _::There you go lovey, that_** ** _’s how it works::_**

  ** _::This is so weird! But_** ** _…you know, it_** ** _’s kind of cool! Learning all of this stuff must have taken forever::_**

  ** _::Lilly showed us what to do to keep ourselves sane and out of each other_** ** _’s business the first thing when we woke up. She had to figure it out all on her own and how in the world she didn't go insane before Richard showed up is beyond me. She's damn clever, that's for sure::_**

  ** _::I think I need to talk to her as soon as I can. There_** ** _’s so much I need to know, girl stuff::_**

  ** _::Well, before you do that, do you think you could spare me a kiss or two?::_**

 “Oh, I can do more than that, my dearest love,” Arielle purred as she brushed her husband’s lips with her own, quickly nipping at his lower lip with an evil chuckle. “First thing though is your spanking.”

 Paul laughed softly and wrestled Arielle into the bedclothes to nip at her shoulders and kiss her until she begged him to let her up so she could breathe. “You kinky bitch,” he murmured, running his tongue up her neck and grazing her chin with his sharp teeth. “I’ve been a very, very bad boy…”

 “Shut up Paulchen, and kiss me, _verdammit_ …”

 And he did.

 


End file.
